Modulation
by Siskin
Summary: An unexpected meeting on the Farplane...


Disclaimer: I don't own FFX or FFVII. I just like to play with them.

Warnings: Crossover fic – Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy X. Takes place between FFX and FFX-2. SPOILERS.

Rated: K+

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Modulation

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Being incorporeal wasn't too bad.

The Farplane was pretty, and Tidus spent most of the first few days just wandering around exploring. At least, he thought it was a few days. The place seemed to get dark once in a while and then cycle back to its usual twilight dimness, so he supposed that was day and night.

He didn't have to walk if he didn't want to. If he gave up human form and turned into a pyrefly, he could float. But his thoughts seemed to wander a lot more when he did that, and his pyrefly form wandered too. Then he just wound up going in circles. So mostly he walked.

He was glad he hadn't just faded away and disappeared. The Farplane was peaceful, and not a bad place to be. The thing was, there just wasn't much to do, besides wander around. He'd hoped to be able to talk to Auron, or if he was really bored, _maybe _Jecht, but since they'd greeted him coming in, he hadn't seen them.

He didn't really feel lonely. He saw other pyreflies around, though none of them took human form. He could sense tinges of personalities—mostly friendly, though a few of them avoided him. He didn't feel the need to talk to them.

The only times he felt lonely were the times he thought of Yuna.

He shook his head a little. _It's for the best. How could you have stayed with her when you're not even real?_

_I am real! _another part of him argued. _Why else would I still be here? Somehow, some part of me must be real! I didn't go through all of those battles just to float around here for the rest of eternity as a miniature fireworks display!_

_It's just the way it is. There's nothing you can do about it._

_The heck there isn't! I did my best to keep up a brave face in front of Yuna, but dammit, it isn't fair! Just because I came from a false Zanarkand doesn't mean I don't think and feel! I'm doing it right now! If that doesn't make me real, what does?_

Absorbed in his internal rant, Tidus didn't notice the change in the landscape until it was complete. Cliffs and waterfalls had fallen away behind him, leaving flat fields of flowers. The light was much brighter. The flowers were different, and although he thought he could still hear distant water flowing, he couldn't see the source.

He stopped and turned all the way around, but every direction looked the same. _Oh, great. Don't tell me I've actually gotten _lost _on the Farplane? I'll never hear the end of it if Dad finds out—_

"Hello."

The voice close behind him startled Tidus so badly that he whirled around, tripped over his own feet, and fell over on his rear—and he _felt _it.

On the Farplane he'd hopped off cliffs a few times, just for kicks, and landed with hardly any impact—but here he'd fallen and it actually _hurt. _For a moment he was stunned. _What the heck is going on? _He looked up.

A brown-haired girl in a long pink dress was looking down at him. She looked as surprised as he felt, holding one hand over her mouth. "I'm sorry!" she said, lowering her hand. "I didn't mean to startle you like that." Her voice was sincere, but there was a tinge of amusement in it. It would have irritated Tidus if her green eyes hadn't looked so kind. She offered him a hand up.

He took it, getting to his feet and brushing himself off, noticing with bemusement that grass had actually stuck to him. "That's all right." Once he was back on his feet, he was a few inches taller than she was. He looked down at her as she reclaimed her hand and folded both of them behind her back, looking up at him calmly.

"You looked confused," she said. "Are you lost? I'm Aeris, by the way."

"Oh…I'm Tidus. Nice to meet you. And…yeah, I guess I am lost."

Aeris tipped her head sideways a little, face thoughtful. "Oh? Well, where do you come from?"

"Zanarkand," he said promptly. Then he felt foolish. _What did I say that for? Thought I'd broken that habit. _"Er… I mean, the Farplane," he said sheepishly.

Aeris shook her head. "I don't know those places. Can you show me?"

Tidus blinked, perplexed. "Show you?" he echoed.

She smiled. "Close your eyes."

He eyed her suspiciously. "This isn't where I open my mouth and get a nasty surprise, is it?"

She laughed out loud. "No! It's safe, I promise!"

He grinned, and then closed his eyes obediently.

"See the place you want to go. Picture it in your head. As much detail as you can remember."

He tried to visualize the Farplane. It wasn't, after all, like he hadn't spent the last few days staring at it. Cliffs, waterfalls, flowers, and pyreflies. Lots of cliffs. Lots of waterfalls. Lots of flowers. Lots and lots of pyreflies.

But it wouldn't stay put in his mind's eye. Pyreflies turned into people, cliffs into trees, waterfalls into walls, flowers into paved paths—the temple at Besaid, where he'd met Yuna.

He pressed his lips together and squeezed his eyes more tightly shut, trying to erase the image and start over. But it just wouldn't work. He scowled more and more, until he suddenly felt the light touch of a fingertip on the crease of concentration that had appeared on his forehead. He opened his eyes.

Aeris lowered her hand, looking at him with quiet sympathy. "What's wrong?"

"I don't know. It isn't working right. It keeps turning into the wrong place," he muttered.

"Oh? Show me what it wants to be, then. Try again."

Tidus sighed, but closed his eyes again. This time he put all his concentration into remembering every detail he could recall of Besaid.

_Sun on the walls…light of early morning…sound of the ocean in the distance…Wakka and Kimahri and Lulu on the steps…_He winced as one more figure began to appear.

"It's all right," he heard Aeris say softly.

_Wide mismatched eyes, one green, one blue…silky brown hair…graceful hands holding her ritual staff, the white and lavender and yellow and indigo of her Summoner's garb…soft glossy lips smiling at him…_

"Open your eyes," Aeris whispered.

He opened them, gasped, and had to blink away tears. The scene he'd just envisioned was before him, as if he were really there. The steps at the temple of Besaid, the other Guardians grouped there…and in front of them, Yuna, exactly as he'd last seen her, leaning on her staff with a welcoming smile. It was so realistic an illusion that the salt wind even ruffled his hair a little.

"She's very beautiful," Aeris said quietly. "Is she the one you were looking for?"

Tidus clenched his fists, and shook his head. "She's not here. She's still alive, back in her world. But I'm not part of that world anymore. I never really was to begin with." His voice dropped to a whisper; he couldn't help it. "I'll never really see her again."

"You're that sure?"

Suddenly angry, Tidus rounded on Aeris, and the illusion of Besaid melted away. "Yes, I'm sure!" he shouted. "I'm not real, don't you get it?" Tears choked him again, but he spoke through them. "I'm just a dream…a fake…just something the fayth made up for their convenience…"

But Aeris was smiling—a quiet, distant, reminiscent smile. "You seem real enough to me," she said gently.

"Easy for you to say," he muttered. "If you're here, then you're dead too, aren't you?"

"Well, you don't really have to put it _that_ way." She actually pouted a little, and Tidus felt his anger drain away. She looked up at him. "But I think you must be real." She suddenly smiled impishly. "You yell too much to be a dream."

He grimaced a little. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have shouted. It's not like any of this is your fault."

"Well, your being here right now is my fault," Aeris said, putting her hands behind her back again. "I admit… I called you here."

Tidus's mouth dropped open. "How? Why?"

"Well…'how' is a little hard to explain. But 'why'…I suppose because I heard you, and you reminded me of a friend of mine. Someone else who once believed he was a fake."

Tidus was interested in spite of himself. "Who was he?"

"He wasn't who he thought he was. But he ended up liking who he turned out to be."

Tidus wasn't sure what that cryptic answer meant, although he did like the sound of it. _But she still doesn't have her facts straight! _"But I'm not going to turn out to be anything," Tidus said impatiently. He spread his hands. "This is it for me. Maybe I was in the story for a while, but my part of it's over." His voice cracked.

Aeris looked off in the other direction, and the illusion of Besaid shimmered back into being. After the briefest glance, Tidus swallowed and turned away from it. If he had to look at Yuna's face again, knowing it was only an image, he was going to lose it, right here, no matter what Jecht would say about it.

_If he says a damned thing, I'm going to sock him, incorporeal or not!_

"Your story is over. But hers is still going on," Aeris said. "And I think she wants very badly for you to be in it."

As Aeris spoke, Tidus saw another vivid image in his head—the way Yuna had dashed toward him on the deck of the ship, trying to keep him from going away…and run right through him. He'd _felt _her shock in that instant, stacked on top of his own pain that they were denied even one last chance to touch before he'd be taken from her.

And just as he had then, he broke down crying.

He felt Aeris's hand on his arm, but he stepped away from her and put his hands over his face. "Just leave me alone," he sobbed.

For a moment he thought she'd given him his wish. Then he felt a determined grip pulling his hands away from his eyes, and then a pair of cool, gentle hands cupped his face. He opened his eyes, blinking the tears out of them.

"Tidus, listen to me," she said, looking straight into his eyes, and he found he couldn't look away from her. "Yuna needs you. She's going to be looking for you, and if you can guide her in the right direction, then…"

He blinked again. "Then what?"

She smiled. "Then maybe you can find your way into a new story." She stepped back from him, and held her hand out. "Come on. I'll walk you back."

Confused, Tidus took hold of her hand, and she turned, leading him.

The walk to this place had seemed long to him, but after only a few steps, Tidus found himself back among waterfalls and pyreflies again. Aeris let go of his hand and turned to him. "I can't stay here. But if you need help…call to me, and I'll do what I can."

Tidus blinked. "Wait a minute. How did you know Yuna's name? I never told you."

Aeris just smiled, turned, and walked away. And even though he was looking directly at her, somehow she vanished after only a moment.

He scratched his head. _And didn't she say she didn't know the Farplane? And I never managed to show it to her. But she brought me back here. Aeris…who are you, really?_

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"You were way too nice to him, y'know. You should have just let me kick him in the head. Stupid crybaby brat."

Aeris chuckled and looked up at the man who stood nearby with his arms folded. "He's not so bad."

"Oh, yes he is. You should've seen him when he was a kid. Wait, never mind, he's exactly the same now. Just taller. And whinier. And more pathetic. Y'know, I think I really am going to go kick him around right now, maybe he'll learn a little more respect." Jecht dropped his arms and turned to go, but Aeris reached up and touched his shoulder.

Jecht glanced at her, shrugged, and laughed. "C'mon. He deserves it."

"It's going to be hard enough. For both of them."

Jecht's smile twisted. "Yeah. I know." He looked down at Aeris. "Thanks for the help."

"You're welcome."

He saluted her casually, and turned to walk away, fading into the bright distance.

Aeris looked up, and folded her hands behind her back, and smiled. _This is going to be a good story._

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**The End… sort of.**

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End file.
